A controversial Hollywood-produced movie chronicling the crimes of Karla Homolka will have its premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival next month.
The movie, previously called Deadly, has been renamed Karla, and will have a special showing at the festival, which takes place from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5.
"We didn't change it for the Canadian market. It's for the global one," Michael Sellers, the film's producer, told CTV News Toronto -- although he admitted the change might cause controversy in Ontario.
So why is the movie being picked up by the festival -- which just happens to be Homolka's new home town?
"It's a Canadian story," Serge Losique, the festival's president, told CFCF News on Monday. "Everybody was shocked at what happened, even myself, so why not show it?"
The movie retells the story well-known to most Canadians: How Homolka met husband Paul Bernardo and how the pair abducted, raped and murdered Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French.
The names and appearances of Homolka and Bernardo's victims are changed in the film.
"It's a close-up, mostly on her, and how the woman who loved this man, you can see in the movie (how she) was able to commit so horrible crimes," Losique said.
The producers wanted to release the film in late June, a date that would have coincided with the July 5 expiry of Homolka's 12-year prison sentence for manslaughter.
Following an outcry in Ontario, Sellers announced in May that the Canadian release would be delayed until the fall.
With Homolka now a free woman after serving all of her sentence, the film is making its debut -- although a Canadian distribution deal hasn't been signed yet.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has encouraged people to boycott the film. The families of French and Mahaffy don't want it shown in Canada.
But commercial reality may have pushed the Montreal film festival, which has been in decline in recent years, to showcase Karla.
As an example of the festival's troubles, Telefilm and SODEC, the Quebec equivalent, issued a report in July 2004 criticizing it for not being accountable to the local film community and warning that government funding of $1 million annually could be at risk.
Some speculate a controversial film like Karla will drum up enough interest to help revive the festival.
"It will attract attention, but I don't know if it's in a good way, since it's supposed to be classy international films," film critic Kevin Laforest told CFCF News.
Matt Hays, another film critic, was even more cutting: "You could argue it makes the festival look tawdry and in desperate need of publicity."
There are signs the move might be attracting the kind of attention that the festival doesn't need.
Advertisers are nervous, and long-time film festival sponsor Air Canada is negotiating a strategy with the festival to distance its name from the film.
Homolka's lawyers wouldn't comment on either Karla or the fact that it is debuting in Montreal.
Karla, billed as "a deeply disturbing true story" that "will haunt you forever," stars Laura Prepon (That '70s Show) in the role of Homolka, and Misha Collins (24, Girl Interrupted) as Bernardo. Joel Bender is the director.
Collins said this film won't exploit the pain of the victims and their families.
"This story had changed the way Canada thinks about itself," he said. "If that's true, that makes it all the more vital material to explore in a film."
CTV News Toronto's Paul Bliss said one reason why Montrealers didn't strongly object to Homolka settling in their province was because they didn't know much about her case.
"Perhaps with some publicity around this film, they'll find out," he said.
With reports from CFCF's Jennifer Tryon and CTV News Toronto's Paul Bliss
